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Azerbaijan leader raises eyebrows with Twitter tirade

Unrest ... a protest in Azerbaijan at the weekend sought the resignation of President Ilham Aliyev.

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev caused an internet storm after his official Twitter account posted a tirade of several dozen sharply worded statements against neighbouring Armenia.

Most of the brief messages were recycled from a long speech Aliyev gave last week, but the sudden broadside of inflammatory tweets posted on Tuesday afternoon prompted a top Armenian lawmaker to compare the messages with Nazi German propaganda.

Armenia as a country is of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad, a territory (cont) tl.gd/k2p4ba

Armenia as a country is of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad, a territory (cont) tl.gd/k2p4ba

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"The Armenian lobby is our main enemy and we are the main enemy for them," said Aliyev's official Twitter account, @presidentaz.

"Armenia is a country of no value. It is actually a colony, an outpost run from abroad ... Evidence of this is the mass exodus of people from Armenia to other countries," another tweet read.

Energy-rich Muslim Azerbaijan has been in a bitter conflict with its land-locked Christian neighbour Armenia over the territory of Nagorny Karabakh for decades. The two fought a war in the 1990s that left about 30,000 people dead.

"Azerbaijan grows stronger and more powerful by the year, while Armenia weakens and declines every year," Aliyev said in a further tweet.

The tirade drew a furious reaction from Armenian parliament deputy chairman Eduard Sharmazanov, who called Aliyev a "totalitarian leader of a totalitarian state".

"Aliyev shows by his cynical proclamations that there are still supporters of fascism in the 21st century, and that this ideology flourishes thanks to leaders like him," said Sharmazanov.

"His remarks recall the 1930s-1940s and Hitler," he added.

Aliyev succeeded his father Heydar as the leader of the former Soviet state in 2003 and has showcased the Caspian Sea country as an important energy partner to the West despite human rights concerns.

He gave the 40-minute-long speech that inspired Tuesday's Twitter frenzy to his New Azerbaijan Party to mark the 20th anniversary of its establishment.